US news | The Guardian

Black voters helped propel Biden past Trump to flip the state and organizers who mobilized voters are optimistic they will turn out again and predict, in fact, that turnout will riseAs James Brown’s funk classic Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud pulsed through the mobile sound system, Cliff Albright marched up a steep roadway, bellowing into a microphone trying to get people out of their doors.“Let’s go y’all,” he said. “Black voters matter every day, everywhere.” Continue reading...

The Chicago quarterback was selected before two of the best players of their generation. He has been struggling to prove himself ever sinceAt this point, every game the Chicago Bears play against either the Houston Texans or the Kansas City Chiefs provides another excuse to revisit the 2017 NFL draft. To be more specific, they are opportunities to mock the Bears for selecting quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the second pick, something which allowed the Chiefs and Texans to select the vastly superior Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson at Nos 10 and 12 respectively. This Sunday, at least, Trubisky was the one laughing, putting together one of the finest performances of his Bears career at the expense of Watson and the Texans. Now the question is: will Trubisky’s impressive game be a sign of things to come or was it just a statistical blip?To say that nobody expects much from Trubisky is an understatement. The Bears finally gave up on Trubisky as their starter earlier this season, replacing him with Nick Foles. However, Foles injured his hip against the Minnesota Vikings, paving the way for Trubisky to lead a team that had already publicly lost confidence in him. The Bears haven’t exactly been world-beaters with either quarterback, as they were coming off a six-game losing streak heading into the game against Houston. Continue reading...

Gunman died in hospital after shooting at Cathedral Church of Saint John the DivineA man has been shot dead by police after opening fire from the steps of New York City’s Cathedral Church of St John the Divine just after an outdoor choir performance.New York police department spokesman, Sergeant Edward Riley, said the gunman had fired on police, but no officers or bystanders were believed to have been injured in the late-afternoon violence on Manhattan’s upper west side. Continue reading...

Jill Biden says writer of opinion article is ‘diminishing’ the achievements of women as presidential transition team demands apologyThe Wall Street Journal has come under a torrent of denunciation for publishing a “sexist” opinion article that calls Jill Biden, the first lady-in-waiting, “kiddo”, and questions her right to use “Dr” in front of her name.The article, written by a former adjunct professor at Northwestern University Joseph Epstein, purports to offer Biden “a bit of advice”. Opening on the provocative note of calling her “Madame (sic) First Lady – Mrs Biden – Jill – kiddo”, the author goes on to recommend that she drop the honorific of “Dr” before her name. Continue reading...

Exclusive: US policy, if enacted, would hinder deliveries of badly needed aid in war-torn countryThe Trump administration is facing mounting calls to abandon threats to sanction Houthi rebels in northern Yemen to avoid an imminent danger of extreme famine in the country, where almost two-thirds of the population are in need of food aid.US state department officials are considering designating the Houthis as a terrorist group before the 20 January inauguration of Joe Biden, a move that would complicate the delivery of essential aid in large parts of the country, senior UN officials and NGOs have said. Continue reading...

Trump and Kushner reportedly buying property as a potential base for soon to be ex-first daughter to launch political careerSpeculation about the post-White House career of Ivanka Trump is now centered on Florida, where the soon to be ex-first daughter and senior aide to her president father has reportedly bought an expensive plot of land for a house and may be considering a run for Senate.Ivanka Trump is frequently mentioned as desiring a political career of her own and during her time working for Donald Trump has sought to position herself as a more media-friendly version of her father. Continue reading...

President Museveni promised much when he took power but, 34 years on, violence and poverty are rifeTo survive as an opposition politician in Uganda, you have to hit the campaign trail wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet. You must be ready for war. Ugandan musician turned opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, discovered this when he decided to challenge incumbent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s 34-year stranglehold on power at elections scheduled for 14 January. On the first day Kyagulanyi stepped out to campaign, he wore his vest over red overalls that made him look like a prisoner.“I do not dress like this because I want to. I dress like this because there are people after my life. They think that by killing me, they will have it better. They do not know that if I die, it will only get worse,” he told the crowd outside his house. Continue reading...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is using her millennial’s instinct for social media and her star quality to get her message acrossWhen life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or talk up a storm about the minimum wage, healthcare and the existential struggle for democracy.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s latest Instagram live stream found the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress standing at a chopping board with two lemons and a plastic jug as she expounded her political philosophy. Continue reading...

Millions of renters are at risk of losing their homes if lawmakers don’t expand protectionsMillions of California renters are at risk of eviction as tenant protections soon expire, raising fears of a mass surge in homelessness during the deadliest phase of the pandemic so far. Continue reading...

Far-right groups, including Proud Boys, clashed with counter-protesters after a largely peaceful march against US president-elect Joe Biden’s election victory on Saturday.

Neuropathologist Willie Stewart says there is clear evidence between the sports and degenerative brain condition CTE

Americans across the country say they can’t afford rent and fear losing their home when CDC eviction moratorium ends soonBefore the pandemic hit, 34-year-old Andrew Perry of New Orleans worked in bars and did live sound engineering for shows. But now, with venues closed, Perry has struggled to find another job, even at minimum wage, while his unemployment benefits have been reduced to just $90 per week. He’s worrying about losing his home.Related: Trump under fire for hosting Christmas parties as Covid deaths mount Continue reading...

The UK will soon be on its own – sovereign, in charge and control regained. Yet none of that creates jobs or ensures a glorious futureAfter a lifetime close to the workings of government, I approach drafting an article about Brexit for a Sunday publication with trepidation. Both sides have said a decision will be taken today, but not what that may be; and anyway, can you believe that any decision will really be the last?What I do know is that both sides will be presenting the story that best serves their negotiating positions and pleases their most important audiences. Facts are in short supply; there is a plethora of spin. Continue reading...

Closing Mercy hospital, an oasis in a medical desert on the South Side, would worsen racial health disparities, activists sayActivists, medical professionals and community members in Chicago are rallying against the looming closure of Mercy hospital – the oldest healthcare facility in the city, and one of its most storied – warning that its closure would drastically worsen racial health disparities in the city. Continue reading...

Closing the notorious prison facility on Cuba will be complex and politically thankless. Is Joe Biden prepared to take it on?When news of Joe Biden’s election victory crossed the Florida Straits and reached Guantánamo Bay, it gave at least some of the 40 remaining inmates a tentative hope that their long purgatory might finally be nearing an end.“I think it’s OK for me to be happy about the result. But at the same time, it’s not like, day one, Biden is going to say ‘let’s release Khalid’,” Khalid Qassim, a Yemeni arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, said in a statement given by phone to his lawyer. Continue reading...

As Trump relentlessly pushes false claims of fraud, some fear lower turnout – while poll workers fear for their safetyAs the sun dipped on a crisp autumnal evening in southern Georgia, Lauren Voyle stood in line for a front-row seat on the makeshift risers at the Valdosta regional airport. Donald Trump was due to arrive on the tarmac in a few hours’ time.It was the first time the president would hold a rally since losing the election in November and Voyle, who wore a blue Trump 2020 cap with the slogan “Keep Liberals Crying” on the rim, had driven four and a half hours from Cuming, a small city in the northern part of the state, to witness what she described as a historic moment. Continue reading...

Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer, a Republican and a Democrat, consider how to mend a broken governmentAt times, the Trump administration has seemed like a wrecking ball, careening from floor to floor of a building being destroyed, observers never quite knowing where the ball will strike next. At others, it has worked stealthily to undermine rules and norms, presumably fearing that, as the great supreme court justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “sunshine is the best of disinfectants”.Related: What next? Three books for America after Trump Continue reading...

Four people reportedly stabbed and 23 arrested in the aftermath of a march to denounce Joe Biden’s election victoryViolence has broken out in the streets of Washington DC after far-right groups clashed with counter-protesters in the aftermath of a march by conservatives protesting against US president-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.The trouble flared as darkness fell and crowds began to disperse in the wake of a largely peaceful demonstration on Saturday by Trump supporters who allege without evidence that the 3 November election was tainted by fraud. Continue reading...

Supporters continue to insist election was ‘stolen’ even as electoral college prepares to confirm Joe Biden’s victoryDonald Trump lost a federal court challenge on Saturday in Wisconsin while judges said yet another case being fought there “smacks of racism”. Continue reading...

Firefighters are often thrust into frontline health emergencies. During the pandemic, they’ve paid an especially high priceAs a boy, Robert Weber chased the blazing lights and roaring sirens of fire engines down the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Continue reading...

Police say six people were injured when a car plowed into Black Lives Matter demonstrators in ManhattanOne woman was arrested after allegedly driving her car into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Manhattan Friday afternoon, injuring six, the New York police department (NYPD) said. Continue reading...

Footage shows a vehicle driving into a crowd of about 50 people at a protest on Friday afternoon in the middle of Manhattan, injuring multiple people. The incident happened after 4pm at the corner of 39th Street and Third Avenue in midtown east, police said, adding that the woman behind the wheel of the BMW sedan who drove into the crowd was detained for questioning by law enforcement.

15 March 1933 – 18 September 2020The revered US supreme court justice’s former clerk recalls a friend who cared passionately about the dignity and rights of all

Six people were taken by ambulance to local hospitals, the New York fire department saidA vehicle plowed into a crowd of about 50 people at a protest on Friday afternoon in the middle of Manhattan, injuring multiple people, the New York City police department said.The incident happened after 4pm at the corner of 39th Street and Third Avenue in midtown east, police said, adding that the woman behind the wheel of the BMW sedan who drove into the crowd was detained for questioning by law enforcement. Continue reading...

Racking up executions at the end of your presidency would be disgusting at the best of times. Doing it during a pandemic takes cruelty to a new level Continue reading...

Court blocks baseless effort by Republicans to undo Joe Biden’s victory in four statesThe US supreme court has unanimously rejected a baseless lawsuit filed by Texas seeking to overturn the presidential election result, dealing the biggest blow yet to Donald Trump’s assault on democracy.In a brief, one page order, all nine justices on America’s highest court dismissed the longshot effort to throw out the vote counts in four states that the president lost: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Continue reading...

Republicans in 2020 have established what may be a new template for subverting the vote that could haunt elections for yearsThe decisive rejection by the US supreme court of an attempt by one state, Texas, to throw out election results in four other states might prevent the recurrence of such an effort in future presidential elections.But the Texas lawsuit was not the only unprecedented attack to be leveled on US democracy during the November presidential election, and other such efforts could escalate in, or echo through, future elections for an unknown time to come. Continue reading...

This is extraordinary: a group of Republicans are asking the court to disenfranchise millions of Americans, just so their guy can stay putHow does a two-party democracy continue to function when one side simply won’t play by the rules – and doesn’t seem to believe in the democratic project?Related: Republicans' devotion to Trump pits them against democracy, history – and reality Continue reading...

The incoming Biden administration loves to tout its diversity, instead of talking about what it will actually do in powerJoe Biden is inheriting a mess of a country. The pandemic has killed 290,000 people and threatens many more; another 853,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims last month; and stores are reporting spikes in shoplifting for food and baby formula.If Biden has any answers for us, Americans are keen to hear it. Continue reading...

The grand prix season ends in Abu Dhabi this weekend. The sport needs to rethink its partnerships with oppressive regimesFor Formula One fans around the world, the news that world champion Lewis Hamilton has recovered from coronavirus and will be fit to race in Abu Dhabi this weekend will be met with jubilation. F1’s management, on the other hand, might be feeling ambivalent.

A stroll down my high street is like walking with the ghosts of Christmas pastAs I write, Philip Green’s Arcadia Group – which includes former high street stalwarts Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Evans – has collapsed into administration. Yes, Topshop! The once seemingly indomitable, all-conquering Topshop.Doubtless, Green would point to Covid for this demise; some of us may crook a small finger in Green’s direction. Famously a cuddly bundle of charm, Green fell out with the brilliant Jane Shepherdson, Topshop’s former brand director and the architect of its rise through the 2000s, and she left in 2007. This resulted in a slow but notable downturn in the quality of the clothes, and left the fashion field wide open for retailers such as, on the one hand, Zara, and on the other, Boohoo and PrettyLittleThing, all of whom grasped far quicker than Green that the future lay online. Continue reading...

The electoral college will confirm Joe Biden’s victory on Monday but Donald Trump’s fact-phobic hold on the Republican party holds firmNearly four decades after the publication of A Very British Coup, a popular novel by member of parliament Chris Mullin, America is in the throes of a very Trumpian coup – desperate, mendacious, frenzied and sometimes farcical and, most importantly, doomed to failure. Continue reading...

Despite aggressive early lockdown measures, cases and deaths are now surging. How did things get so bad?Early in the coronavirus pandemic, California was celebrated as a beacon of common sense in a country on the brink. Continue reading...

Alfred Bourgeois’s IQ put him in the intellectually disabled category, which should have barred execution, lawyers sayThe Trump administration continued its unprecedented series of post-election federal executions Friday by putting to death a Louisiana truck driver who abused and killed his two-year-old daughter.Alfred Bourgeois, 56, was pronounced dead at 8.21pm eastern time after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Continue reading...

More than 120 Congress members have asked the supreme court to bar four states from casting electoral votes for BidenMore than 120 Republican members of the US House of Representatives formally asked the US supreme court this week to prevent four swing states from casting electoral votes for Joe Biden to seal his victory in the November election, a brazen move that signals how the Republican party has embraced Donald Trump’s baseless attacks on the American electoral system.Related: Supreme court rejects Trump-backed Texas lawsuit aiming to overturn election results Continue reading...

Message from still unidentified killer reads: ‘I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me’It took 51 years and a team of experts from three countries to crack the code to a cipher left by the still unidentified Zodiac Killer, who haunted northern California communities in the 1960s and 70s. But, on Friday, the code-breaker David Oranchak revealed for the first time, the ominous message sent by the murderer. Continue reading...

Cleavon Gilman says hospital told him not to return to work after his viral comments about bed shortageAn emergency-room doctor whose dedication throughout the coronavirus pandemic garnered praise from Joe Biden has claimed he was fired by the Arizona hospital where he worked for tweeting about the outbreak’s impact.Cleavon Gilman told the Arizona Republic he received a call from the Yuma regional medical center on 23 November, less than a day after he shared his frustration online about the state’s lack of hospital beds in tweets that went viral. He said hospital authorities told him not to return to work. Continue reading...

The state has recorded more than 1.4m cases and close to 20,500 deaths, and numbers are expected to keep risingThe coronavirus continues to shatter grim records across California, as the surge in the fast-spreading virus fills hospital beds close to capacity. Continue reading...

String of White House events with little social distancing flout official guidelines while 3,000 Americans a day are dyingDonald Trump has drawn withering criticism for continuing to host Christmas parties at the White House even as America’s daily death toll from the coronavirus hit a record 3,000. Continue reading...

Richard DeLisi, now 71, was sentenced to 90-year prison term in 1989 for marijuana trafficking, as part of era’s ‘war on drugs’A man believed to be the longest-serving inmate for non-violent, marijuana charges has been released from a Florida prison, and is set to spend the holidays with family for the first time in more than 31 years.Related: First US Covid vaccinations expected next week as FDA emergency approval appears close – live Continue reading...

The prime minister’s Merrie England delusions may work here, but beyond Dover he’s just a liar of global reputeCan it really be just three entire years and three entire days since Michael Gove said of a Brexit deal: “The final whistle has blown, and the prime minister has won”? Either way, I see the Brexit talks have moved into the threatening-suicide-if-your-ex-doesn’t-do-what-you-want stage. On Thursday evening, Boris Johnson took to the airwaves to warn that with negotiations due to end on Sunday, there is now a “strong possibility” of a no-deal Brexit.Related: Boris Johnson would only have himself to blame for a no-deal Brexit | Simon Jenkins Continue reading...

America broke up logging companies in the 1840s, Standard Oil in the 1910s, and AT&T in the 1980s. It’s time to take on big tech